Mattei launches compressed-air leak repair service

Mattei has launched a leak detection and repair service to help businesses improve the energy efficiency of their compressed-air systems.

When assessing the energy efficiency of a compressed-air system, it is important to check for air leaks, according to the company.

Compressed air is a fairly expensive utility, but many companies waste as much as 50 per cent of the compressed air they generate serving leaks in the system.

As a solution, Mattei established the dedicated leak-detection audit and repair service, which is headed by business development manager John Taylor.

The average cost of the company’s initial energy-loss survey is less than 10 per cent of the overall leakage costs.

As the survey is non-intrusive, it will not cause any disruption to a plant or its processes, according to Mattei.

When the initial audit is complete and leaks have been identified, the company devises a tailored corrective-maintenance repair programme, for which it provides financial justification.

The cost of repair is again usually less than 10 per cent of the overall leakage costs.

Once improvements have been made, the results are immediate; most companies will have a payback period of less than six months.

Taylor said: ‘Air leaks have a serious impact on efficiency and identifying and repairing them can save huge amounts of energy and money in a very cost-effective way.

‘According to the Carbon Trust, air escaping through a single 3mm hole could cost a business around GBP700 per year in energy costs.

‘But a typical compressed-air system will have more than just one leak – a medium-size manufacturer will generally have between 200 and 1,000 leaks in their system.

‘So for a company using 50m3 of compressed air per minute, we estimate the annual savings would potentially be in the region of GBP63,000, but larger compressed-air users could potentially make even greater savings,’ he added.